Patch 3.1 - Ulduar

Patch 3.1 is hitting the EU servers today. Be prepared for massive downloads and maintenance stretching into the evening.

The US servers were apparently still down for maintenance well into the afternoon so there is probably no point leaving work early to get home and sample Ulduar.

If you haven't had the background downloader running then I wouldn't even expect to get online today :P

I for one am not bothered, apart from checking to see if my auctions have sold!

I am freshly back from a week in Majorca, nicely tanned, have a house to renovate and am still guildless. Although I am trying to persuade NicePallyClassLeader to come back to WoW and start a new guild called "The Real Portugese Porkers"!

Watch this space...

Bye Bye Portugese Porkers

Gone are the happy days of 2 hour Karazhan loot runs, happy runs through SSC laughing and belching our way to wipe on Lady Vag, unnecessary wipage on LootReaver, noobs falling off their tanking spots on A'lar; all done with friendly joking and camaraderie over TS.

They were the heydays of Portugese Porkers. We didn't suffer burnout through TBC as we never completed TK and SSC before BT came out, we didn't complete BT/MH before Sunwell arrived and we didn't finish Sunwell before Wrath.

Wrath - The Guild Slayer.
But amongst other things Wrath has killed Portugese Porkers for many. Naxx 25 was practically on farm within weeks of 25 raiders getting to level 80, Malygos went down shortly thereafter.

People started leaving, not for other guilds but for a break. It wasn't just the raiders, it was officers, raid leader and veterans. NicePallyClassLeader and her bf, the hunter CL, left for an extended (maybe permanent) break. Most of the original crew were no longer turning up for raids.

New Blood.
A new leadership structure filled the gap; not the happy go lucky Portugese we were used to, but, I'm afraid to say, Brits who started taking things far too seriously, and the odd smattering of Polish.

People who were great (if not a little quirky) as raiders, but give them a taste of power and ... well you know the end of that story.

A Little Busy to Level.
This didn't mean too much to me as it was happening, I had my dying father to worry about, I had a wedding to organise and a house to renovate. I got to level 80 as quickly as I could, NicePallyClassLeader knew the situation and was fine with me grabbing the odd half hour here and there to squeeze some levelling in; she was keen to get me to level 80 as soon as was practicable so I could start raiding with them again.

All Change.
But then she went on extended leave, and so did others. People that cared too much about being petty little Hitlers and feeling self-important and not enough, by far, about the people behind the avatars took over the day to day running of the guild and raids.

People that thought it unfair that (when I was able to get online long enough to raid) I was allowed to go along to a Naxx-25 run and get upgrades that would otherwise be sharded. Go along to a raid that was sub-25 people anyway. Even filling spots in raid and still getting the under-21 raider achievement.

It's Not Fair - QQ Some More.
These people were saying I should be doing heroics and Naxx-10s to gear up before being allowed into Naxx-25 where the gear was sharded, when there was a spot open for me in N-25 farm runs.

Just because those first to 80 had to runs heroics and Naxx-10s to gear up. Because they couldn't get anywhere near to filling a N-25 without resorting to massive PUGage.

Good Guys vs Bad Guys.
There were still some old school Portugese Porkers hanging around who argued against this lame-ass attitude, that it was supposed to be a casual raiding friendly guild, but they were accused of not moving with the times and pitting the Old School vs the Now.

I finally hit level 80 at the start of Feburary, I started accepting raid invites and going to raids but was told that I could only bid minimum on items, because the new pally CL thought it would be best for me. That felt like a kick in the teeth at the time, I don't know whether he was really thinking it was best for me or not. It meant I could gear up on the cheap, but only on items that no-one else wanted, unless I was rolling against a triallist or other non-raider. But it also meant that I couldn't accrue DKP to be able to bid on the better items.

Demoted.
At this point I still had my Veteran rank but a few weeks later, within days of my father dying I was demoted to Non-Raider so I was not even invited to raids, I had to ask if there were any spots once the raids had been formed.

A month ago, after filling up most of my armour spots with ilevel 213 epics, I applied for my raider rank back. I was pretty well geared, had level 80 blue gems wherever a socket existed and at the minimum had TBC enchants on things.

Bitches.
The application turned into a bitch-fest about how I waltzed up after taking 3 months to level 80 and expected to go raiding again. How it wasn't fair that I hadn't slogged my guts out gearing up in heroics because there wasn't anything else to do anyway :P regardless of the fact that I was mostly Naxx-25 geared anyway, had been to Naxx and Maly many times and any upgrades (Weapon, rings and trinkets) would be minor upgrades and soon replaced in Naxx anyway.

Put in Some Effort.
To show willing I respecced to Holy, which is what I was wanting to raid as, even though I kept getting taken as ret. I went to heroics going for the minor upgrades to my non-213 gear, just so it could be upgraded again in the next raid (which is exactly what happened).

The PallyCL never even responded to my application, I'd done it all official like and the flaming began, and continued, in the public area of the guild forum until I asked that it be moved to the guild-only area.

New CL.
Then a new Pally CL was appointed, he was one of the assholes that had been more vociferous in his complaints. I was still not consulted about anything, apart from "gear up some more". HELLO?? Any serious upgrades are from Naxx-25. Raid buffed I could already sport about 1950 Spellpower. What is your fucking problem?

Enough is Enough!
So I've had enough, it's been 2 months since I hit level 80, it's been a month since I applied for my raider spot back. The guild never get a full 25 people along to raids and yet I have to beg for a spot. Most of the fun and capable people have left or are on a break. I'm out of here. I /gquit. I didn't do it at 5 in the morning, I did it quite late in the evening, but there were at least 3 officers online and many others. I stayed online while I composed and posted my goodbye post on the forums, and not one single response.

Good Riddance and as TJ would say "Up Yours!"

Back Into Naxx

Managed to get an invite to guild naxx-25 run last night, still as a non-raider though so could only bid minimum on drops.

It was a finish up run, so I think it was military quarter, razuvious, horsemen etc followed by Sapph (or whatever) and finished up with Kel'sobad.

Upgraded the necklace that I had only just got to a nice epic one and also won a T7 chestpiece token which I handed in for a Valorous Battle Tunic or whatever the fuck it is.

Upgrades still required:
Blue Kirin Tor Cloak -> Purple cloak
All rings and trinkets
Purple mail boots -> Purple Plate Boots
Blue Kal'uak Mace -> Purple mace

Still I was hovering around 5th or 6th on my healing meters, overtaken at the last moment by a ret pally judging light :P

Edit: Really need to upgrade healing meter; WWS says I was 2nd or 3rd on most bosses :)

That is all, hopefully the fuckers will promote me back to raider soon.

And More Heroics

Seems I'm getting into this healing heroics lark. After the foray into Nexus I picked up the daily heroic and went into Utgarde Keep.

Might I add I had to do all the hard work of getting the groups together, but at least I wasn't looking for a healer and a tank, just the tank!

Anyway, so into UK we went and had a couple of wipes on the Plunderer at the end but that was all, and only a few careless dps deaths on the way.

I really only wanted Annhylde's Ring (which didn't drop) but managed to pick up the Tattered Castle Drape for the tank set to upgrade my Gilded Thorium Cloak and Skullcage of Eternal Terror to replace my ret-set Thought-Purifying Protector.

Oh well, lets see what happens tommorrow.

edit: however, both those upgrade were BoE so I am going to sell them seeing as I probably will never get to tank or dps now that I am 80!!

Back in the Swing...

Well, the sun tan lotion is washed out of the shorts, the tan has all peeled away and it's back into the swing of work.

So what better way to celebrate than with a quick heroic?

Checking my gear I really need to upgrade my healing mace. I am currently running with the Kul'uak exalted Totemic Purification Rod, which is blue but it ain't bad, but if I'm going to get back into raid healing I want a purple mace :)

Heroic PUG
So off to heroic Nexus with a PUG - Oooo this could be painful!!

Took a while to get a tank. I was healer as I respecced last night and put some crappy enchants on as I was levelling EB's enchanting, so hit around 1600 SP - Lol.

Got a tank eventually and headed on in.

First Healer Outing
I haven't yet been specced healer since hitting 80 so spent most of the time getting used to keeping sacred shield and bacon of light up. But we did OK. We died a few times on Grand Magus thingy but got it down eventually.

We finally got to KerryKatona and took her out first go. Not bad for my first healing outing.

Bad Kerry
2 or 3 wipes and 3 or 4 random deaths. But no War Mace of Unrequited Love, the bloody flame girdle thing dropped :(

Shiny Upgrades
I did however upgrade my tanking shield from Bulwark of the Tormented God to Bulwark of the Noble Protector, grabbed myself a Frozen Orb and also upgraded my healing Necklace from Nadina's Pendant of Purity to Amulet of Dazzling Light.

I'm Back!!!

To my 3 followers and all the other imaginery readers I may have, I am back. I have been on holiday - YAY!!

Normal service will resume when I have got back into my stride and have something to say!!

Wednesday Achievement Ramble

Fish and Kungaloosh.
OK, so I went out and did a bit more fishing last night, I got myself a few stacks of nettlefish in ShoeBazaar Basin before starting the Nesingwary quests.

Why? Well I need the fish to make Fish Feast for the Northrend Gourmet (and also hopefully to swap for enchanting mats in the guild bank); as for the Nesingwary quests? Well you need to get as far into them as completing the first quests in the Panther and Rhino chains to open up the "Lemonade or Booze" chain from Mr Grimbooze. This chain when complete opens up a quest to get the final recipe required for Northrend Gourmet: Kungaloosh.

So having got that far, distilled his lemonade into some booze and tested it on the locals it's time for a quick HS back to Dalaran.

Piss-head Mage.
Off to visit the Washed Up Mage in the sewers who kindly taught me the Recipe for Kungaloosh. A quick trip to the mail box for some Glacial Salmon and Mussleback Sculpin, onto the bank for some Northern Spices and finally onto the "tree" vendor between the Inn and the alliance portal building for some berries and plums. Cook up a fish feast and some Kungaloosh and WHOOSH - Achievement: Northrend Gourmet!!

A New Title.
The next job of the evening was a quick flight into Crystalsong forest to explore the last 2 sub zones and KABLOOEY - Achievement: Explore Northrend followed by Achievement: Explorer!!

More Fishing.
So, now that the Northrend Gourmet is finally complete there is only one thing standing in the way of me and "Chef" and that is Captain Rumsey's Fucking Lager. You have to brew some up. Where do you get the recipe? From the fishing daily quest. Now, don't get me started on the fact that you have to have levelled the most annoying profession up pretty high to do another profession achievement. Cooking is pretty well linked to fishing already, that is annoying enough as it is :(

Sticking Point.
OK, some profession occasionally need materials from other profession, like Iron buckles from blacksmithing to make a certain leatherworking recipe. Several professions need alchemy potions to make things etc etc. But you can usually buy these relatively easily from the Auction House.

But you have to have a pretty high fishing skill to get the cooking Meta-Achievement? WTF Blizz? Bastards. Luckily, I am level 450 fisherman, and I was a level 375 fisherman pretty early on in TBC. I have been doing the fishing daily on and off since it appeared. BUT I HAVE NEVER HAD CAPTAIN RUMSEY'S FUCKING LAGER drop once!!!!

Oh, how this is pissing me off!!!

And Moving On...
OK, now that I have that rant out of the way, there's a few other achievements I am chasing. I just need the book from the Ledgermain Lounge for Higher Learning, I want to get one of the extreme rare spawns which is a Northrend exploration achievement, but is not required for the Explorer meta-achievement.

I have done the first of the squirrel loving achievements and started on the the second one and I have killed most of the pests required for Pest Control.

Achievement Macro's.
A lot of these have been made a lot easier by target macro's. The basic macro consists of somehting like:

/cleartarget
/tar mobname1
/tar mobname2
/tar mobname2
[noexists] stopmacro
/script playsoundfile("Raggy Insect Kill.wmv");
/s Need to Kill %t
/autoattack

^^ not a real macro :P

Actual macro examples coming in a future blog post.

Kinky Sadist Lovemaking. (That's gonna get the google rank up!!)
I ripped off some of these macro's from wowwiki, that's what it's there for after all; but I want to change the sound file that plays "DIE! INSECT!" to a slightly nicer one for when the achievement involves a /love

You've got to admit it doesn't really fit, unless you are some kind of sado-masochistic freak!!

I had a quick look around the game files but couldn't find any /wav files.

HELP - Anyone know how to mine the separate files from the distribution?

Euripedes Does it Again.

There is a reason Critical QQ is on my blog roll...

Here is another example.

450 Cooking

OMG, that was a pain in the ass. I suppose I could have blown half my stack of gold on mats but I decided I would farm the mats required to get to 450 cooking.

Pay Attention.
Luckily, as anyone who has been paying attention will know, I had already reached 450 fishing and have the very nice epic Kal'uak fishing pole and weather beaten hat, so getting the fish should have been easy!

Here Fishy Fishy.
As the mats for the small feast are quite similar to the Fish Feast that I am intending to cook and swap for enchanting mats in the guild bank, I decided Gigantic feast was the way to get to 450. Mammoths, Rockfin Groupers and Deep Sea Monsterbellies watch out!!

Only 25 skill points and 2 of each ingredient required. So 2.5 stacks of each.

Bugger!
4 odd stacks later and I'm still at 444 - ARGH!!

So another trip down to my favourite fishing spot in the Frozen Sea, 2 more stacks of each fish followed by a flight up to annoy those D.E.H.T.A. folks by killing all their mammoths and I finally hit 450 cooking. And Whoopee I still have 90 Northern Spices left!!!

Next?
Now I am going to sit in the Ledgermain Lounge until that god-damn book spawns!

Arseholes

WTF?? I logged on this afternoon to check what the raids were and nothing was appearing in the guild calendar thingummy.

Turns out I have been demoted to non-raider, so don't get auto invited to raids.

It's a long road to level 80.
Most of the guild leadership are aware of the personal issues I have had recently, and the reason it took so long to get to 80. But I got there retaining my Senior Raider rank.

Attendance.
Then, despite, ongoing personal stress I started raiding and signing for almost every raid; at least the 2 out of 3 required.

Gear.
I'm still sporting T6 neck and chest but all my other armour is i-level 213. I just need to upgrade rings and trinkets and maybe my Blue Mace (Kalu'ak exalted).

Knowledge.
I am also now fully au fait with Naxx-25 and Malygos-25 tactics.

Only NOW I am demoted to non-raider!!!!

It took all my self control not to go all emo again and do a dramatic /gquit. I'm not so self absorbed that I think I am indispensable :P